Tenn. police mentor youth through grant

By Becky Campbell
Johnson City Press

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Youth in two Johnson City Housing Development complexes are getting up-close encounters with city police officers — in a positive way — through a grant program that provides a mentoring component.

It’s part of the Targeted Community Crime Prevention project, a $800,000 grant awarded to the Johnson City Police Department last year. Project Director Becky Haas spent a year developing partnerships with community organizations to implement the four-prong plan.

Officer Michael Whitaker, part of the community policing team, heads up mentoring and is assigned to a targeted area of the city when he is on patrol.